June 2006
Steve Howell has informed the Brown Dwarf group
that the ApJ Letter (Ef Eri and the surrounding dust cloud) was finally
accepted earlier this month.
March 2006
Mr. Chun worked with his eighteen
physics 2 students on their RBSE projects. They entered RBSE posters
into the school-wide science fair held during the first week of
February. They are now getting their RBSE papers ready for submission
by April 1. Mr. Chun gave a short presentation to his physics 2 class about
his AAS meeting experience and infrared astronomy in general. Mr. Chun, along
with Linda Stefaniak and Beth Thomas,
is working towards making their Spitzer project into a
stand-alone teaching package/module. He also presented the student's
RBSE research to members of his high school's visiting NEASC
accreditation committee (March 5, 2006) as evidence of authentic
science research and inquiry. The accreditation committee members were
duly impressed.
February 2006
After the AAS meeting, Mr. Chun along with Linda Stefaniak and Beth Thomas,
worked with Steve Howell and submitted a follow-on
observation proposal (submitted end of January). From their initial Brown
Dwarf study, a possible dust disk was discovered surrounding both the
brown dwarf and white dwarf pair. The group requested a spectra of one of their
objects to resolve the true nature of what they were observing. The proposal
was accepted (2/15) and the team is now waiting to be placed on the Spitzer
observing schedule. They also worked on an ApJ Letter with Steve Howell
describing the dust disk discovery during the months of January and
February. The ApJ Letter was submitted, reviewed, resubmitted, and, as
of 3/20/06, the letter is still in its second review.
January 2006
Mr. Chun attended the AAS meeting in Washington D.C. where he helped present his
group's poster on the Brown Dwarf project.
His group's poster session was on
Tuesday, January 10, 2006. The science poster was handled by
Steve Howell with inputs from Mr. Chun, Linda Stefaniak and Beth Thomas. The science poster
session was also on Tuesday, January 10, 2006. Doris Daou already has
electronic and hard copies of both posters.
October 2005
Mr. Chun ran two in-service workshops on the last two Wednesdays of October for
science teachers in his school district: one on classroom infrared
activities, and the other on multi-wavelength (including infrared)
astronomy research in the science classroom. The teachers really enjoyed
Michelle's IR video. The teachers went away with new ideas for activities
and science fair projects in their physical science, biology, and
chemistry classes. Mr. Chun had ten teachers attending each workshop.
Mr. Chun gave a one hour lecture on the Spitzer Space telescope, the teacher
researcher program, and our group's research to a group of approximately
50 amateur astronomers at the Seagrave Memorial Observatory in Scituate,
RI. It was a different experience talking to a knowledgeable and informed
audience. He was peppered with questions throughout the lecture.
The Spitzer DVD was very useful.
He showed the IR video, the simulated launch, and the pretty
visible to IR pictures. They were also quite interested in how he used IR
in the classroom and with my students.
August 2005
Mr Chun's
workshops will not occur until October and November. He was informed on
September 2nd that his group's third object v347 pav is now available in the
archives. He checked the archives and the IRAC files are ready to be
downloaded and processed. However, the teachers are not ready to process
the data yet. The PC users in his group do not have UNIX or LINUX based
computers. Mr. Chun is still checking for the availablity of a Mac friendly version
of MOPEX.
The teachers are nearly ready to create SEDs for gg leo and AAVSO 0150-60.
Future Plans
Mr. Chun plans on giving a district wide IR workshop October 2005.
Mr. Chun has been asked to give an hour-long presentation on the
Spitzer Telescope and the research the twelve teachers are doing for
the Skyscrapers-a local Rhode Island astronomy group-on November 4,
2005.
Jeff Adkins
|
John Blackwell
|
Jacqueline Barge
|
Christopher Border
|
Kareen Borders
|
Robert Bonadurer
|
Merrill Butler
|
Lauren Chapple
|
Joseph Childers
|
Howard Chun
|
Wendy Curtis
|
Richard DeCoster
|
Stacy DeVeau
|
Harlan Devore
|
Cris DeWolf
|
Velvet Dowdy
|
Thomas Doyle
|
Dean Drumheller
|
Debbie Edwards
|
Mike Ford
|
Debbie French
|
John Gibbs
|
Peter Guastella
|
Rosa Hemphill
|
Ardis Herrold
|
Vivian Hoette
|
Chelen Johnson
|
Virginia Jones
|
Adam Keeton
|
Susan Kelly
|
Marcella Linahan
|
Thomas Loughran
|
Carolyn Mallory
|
Anthony Maranto
|
Christoper Martin
|
Kevin McCarron
|
Matthew McCutcheon
|
David McDonald
|
Shefali Mehta
|
Cindy Melton
|
Kate Meredith
|
Lauren Novatne
|
Kathryn O'Connor
|
Caroline Odden
|
Jeffrey Paradis
|
Vincent Pereira
|
Helen Petach
|
Peggy Piper
|
Peter Pitman
|
Elizabeth Ramseyer
|
Steve Rapp
|
Theresa Roelofsen Moody
|
Denise Rothrock
|
Diane Sartore
|
John Schaefers
|
Sally Seebode
|
Babs Sepulveda
|
Timothy Spuck
|
Darryl Stanford
|
Linda Stefaniak
|
Dwight Taylor
|
Jennifer Tetler
|
Beth Thomas
|
Cynthia Weehler
|
Lynne Zielinski
